ATI Ethical and Legal Considerations
Questions and Answers | Latest Version
| 2025/2026 | Correct & Verified
What should a nurse do when a patient expresses the wish to stop all treatments, including food
and fluids?
✔✔ Notify the healthcare provider and honor the patient’s autonomy
What legal document allows a person to designate someone to make healthcare decisions on their
behalf?
✔✔ Durable power of attorney for healthcare
If a nurse shares information about a client in a group text with other staff not involved in the
client’s care, what has been violated?
✔✔ Patient confidentiality under HIPAA
What is a nurse’s responsibility when observing another nurse falsify a patient’s vital signs?
✔✔ Report the incident to a supervisor or nurse manager immediately
1
, When is a nurse required to break patient confidentiality?
✔✔ When there is a legal obligation to report harm or threat of harm to self or others
If a nurse provides care while knowingly impaired by alcohol, what law is being broken?
✔✔ Practicing under the influence, a violation of nursing licensure law
What ethical duty is the nurse fulfilling by advocating for safe staffing levels?
✔✔ Beneficence and justice
What is the nurse’s obligation if a patient’s family insists on treatment that contradicts the
patient’s advance directive?
✔✔ Follow the patient’s wishes as outlined in the advance directive
If a nurse forgets to lower a patient’s bed and the patient falls, what legal concept applies?
✔✔ Negligence
If a nurse performs CPR on a patient with a DNR order, what has occurred?
✔✔ Violation of the patient’s legal rights
2
Questions and Answers | Latest Version
| 2025/2026 | Correct & Verified
What should a nurse do when a patient expresses the wish to stop all treatments, including food
and fluids?
✔✔ Notify the healthcare provider and honor the patient’s autonomy
What legal document allows a person to designate someone to make healthcare decisions on their
behalf?
✔✔ Durable power of attorney for healthcare
If a nurse shares information about a client in a group text with other staff not involved in the
client’s care, what has been violated?
✔✔ Patient confidentiality under HIPAA
What is a nurse’s responsibility when observing another nurse falsify a patient’s vital signs?
✔✔ Report the incident to a supervisor or nurse manager immediately
1
, When is a nurse required to break patient confidentiality?
✔✔ When there is a legal obligation to report harm or threat of harm to self or others
If a nurse provides care while knowingly impaired by alcohol, what law is being broken?
✔✔ Practicing under the influence, a violation of nursing licensure law
What ethical duty is the nurse fulfilling by advocating for safe staffing levels?
✔✔ Beneficence and justice
What is the nurse’s obligation if a patient’s family insists on treatment that contradicts the
patient’s advance directive?
✔✔ Follow the patient’s wishes as outlined in the advance directive
If a nurse forgets to lower a patient’s bed and the patient falls, what legal concept applies?
✔✔ Negligence
If a nurse performs CPR on a patient with a DNR order, what has occurred?
✔✔ Violation of the patient’s legal rights
2
